Posts Categorised: Police

“Canadian public safety personnel (PSP; e.g., correctional workers, dispatchers, firefighters, paramedics, police officers) are exposed to potentially traumatic events as a function of their work. Such exposures contribute to the risk of developing clinically significant symptoms related to mental disorders. The current study was designed to provide estimates of mental disorder symptom frequencies and severities for Canadian PSP.”

Source: Carleton, R. N. et al. (2017). The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, and available from this link (open access).

“There has been a lexical shift in policing terminology from ‘crime prevention’ to ‘crime reduction.’ Still, the overarching goals continue to include addressing crime and disorder and providing public protection. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has developed specialized crime reduction units (CRUs) as one strategy to achieve these objectives; however, there has been limited research on these units’ mandates and crime reduction strategies in a Canadian policing context. This paper presents the findings of qualitative interviews and descriptive statistics collected from one RCMP CRU to examine how the Unit’s officers articulated the specific tasks established in their mandate and whether their policing activities reflected the mandate’s distinctive objectives.”

“This resource was produced by the Australian Institute of Family Studies on behalf of Victoria Police. Using evidence from the psychological and criminological literature, it addresses some of the common myths and misconceptions about sexual offending, including adult rape and sexual offences as well as child sexual abuse. It provides clear information on what should be considered a misconception, as well as what is considered ‘typical’ and ‘common’ behaviour in both offenders and victims.”

“Gender representation is essential to quality outcomes in police services. Currently, the Queensland Police Service (QPS) contains 26% women, compared to the 50.4% of women in the Queensland population. Our research supports the QPS goal of achieving a gender representative police service by highlighting gendered barriers and facilitators from the point of career consideration through the stages of the police application process. Findings outlined in this paper aim to improve the QPS application process to enhance future representation and the quality of the police service.”

“In England and Wales, there are three commonly used but not necessarily commonly designed or operated, mental health interventions associated with policing, Liaison and Diversion, Street Triage and specialist staff embedded in Police Contact Control Rooms. A fourth US designed model, Crisis Intervention Teams (CITs), is now attracting some interest in England and Wales, and these four are to be considered in this review. A fifth intervention, Mental Health Courts, was trialed but has now been abandoned in England and Wales and so has been excluded, but remains in use elsewhere.”

“The question is not just what kind of reform is necessary, but why changes have been so slow and difficult in coming – and what conditions are necessary to invigorate and sustain reform,” writes Leuprecht. “The RCMP needs structural reform if we want to improve its performance and strengthen the professional aspects of policing while building the confidence that is required and expected of Canada’s federal police agency.”

Source: Leuprecht, C. (2017). Macdonald-Laurier Institute and available from this link (open access).

“Some researchers suggest that police professionals see little value in adopting evidence based approaches to tackle policing challenges. To examine this issue, 586 Canadian police professionals were surveyed. We explore responses to one particular question, which caused 353 respondents to reflect on whether they think their agencies enact evidence based policing (EBP) principles in daily operations; specifically, the principles of targeting, testing, and tracking the implementation of new policing strategies.”

“The present article examines expectations on police leaders during major organisational change pressures. Based on policy analysis and interviews with 28 police leaders, the paper seeks to answer the following question: How do police leaders’ accounts of leadership practice relate to expectations from higher ranks (above), subordinates (below) and police policies concerning leadership? The results of the paper indicate that police leaders are squeezed into a position between demands from above (top management) and demands from below (lower organisational tiers).”

“It summarises the findings of the evaluation of the Multiagency Investigation and Support Team (MIST), which involves the co-location of a Child Abuse Squad team (WA Police), police and Child Protection and Family Support specialist child interviewers, a CPFS worker, Child and Family Advocates, and therapeutic support services to work as part of an integrated team in Armadale, Western Australia.”

Source: Bromfield, L., & Herbert, J. (2017). Australian Centre for Child Protection and available from this link (open access).